Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 34 Gloria's Business [Please continue reading]

"Hello? Are you... uh, Mann?"

The woman's voice sounded a little nervous on the other end of the phone.

Seemingly dealing with cyberpunks for the first time, she even forgot to state her purpose.

Mann frowned. "If you're not buying any big guns, then stop the hell fighting—"

"Wait! I'm not advertising!"

The woman seemed very anxious.

"Then hurry up and tell me." Mann wasn't very friendly, and cyberpunks were generally reluctant to answer these kinds of random phone calls.

A decent person would definitely send a text message to ask first, instead of coming up with someone's name like a clueless fool.

Not polite.

Do you want me to ask you to speak?

Mann, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, was already in a bad mood.

“Hey, listen, I contacted a middleman in Santo Domingo… He said you’re doing pretty well and asked me to come talk business with you.”

"Are you in Night City right now? The middleman said he hasn't seen you in a while."

Mann didn't say where he was. "I've moved to a different place. I go wherever there's money, it's normal... Tell me about your business, ma'am."

"I joined a private clinic's rescue team here in Santo Domingo, and usually... uh, I can..."

"Yes, cybernetic bodies. I have some decent cybernetic weapons here. Are you interested in buying them?"

The woman on the other end seemed afraid to speak loudly, and spoke haltingly.

Mann has always disliked his business partners, but he couldn't resist the fact that this woman was talking about prosthetics.

Cybernetic bodies, weapons, and trade secrets uncovered by hackers—these are all things Night City can turn into a fortune.

Tell me about your prosthetic body.

Gloria, pacing back and forth in the laundry room, breathed a sigh of relief. Many people had rejected her, but Mann was the only one who had been patient.

“Prosthetic bodies are all taken off the body. As for accessories, whatever you need, I can help you… take them off.”

Mann raised an eyebrow. "Madam, you didn't say you were a cleaner."

"No, no, no, I'm not a cleaner—you know, a lot of people die at the hands of police or cyber lunatics. We also outsource our work to the Terrorist SWAT team and trauma teams, especially for those expired clients."

"Please reconsider... I beg you."

Gloria gritted her teeth and uttered the last two words in a trembling voice.

Mann hesitated for a moment, "Madam, you need to show me pictures of your work environment—I'm a kidney donor, I don't know how to do wire work, I need to know that you are..."

Gloria quickly replied, "Don't worry, I'll film it for you when I have work. It's definitely not about cutting off kidneys. As for the type and quality of the prosthetic body, I can't be picky. You'll have to find a distributor who isn't picky."

Please, this is Dogtown, what kind of sales channels don't we have?
A smile appeared on Mann's face.

He wouldn't complain about having too much money.

Dorio saw Mann baring his teeth, looking just like the lewd look she had when watching Mewtwo, and punched him in the stomach.

Mann squinted, wincing in pain, "There's good work to be had."

Pila rested his head on his hand and exclaimed, "Wow, we're making money from both Night City and Dogtown! If we keep going like this, we can make hundreds of thousands before Christmas!"

Dorio became interested.

"what?"

Mann nodded. "Someone from Santo Domingo said she wanted to sell some cybernetic implants and weapons. She didn't sound like a scavenger. Let's wait for her reply."

Dorio raised her chin and pointed to the clinic.

"Should we discuss this with Mr. Lin?"

Mann nodded. "Since we're all in this together, we should make money together. If this distributor is legitimate, there's nothing wrong with us earning some extra cash."

After a long wait, the sky over Dogtown was tinged with a golden-red hue.

In a world where everything is exposed to the ozone hole, the sky over Night City is unusually beautiful. Flying cars glide past fiery clouds, and the loudspeakers in Dogtown broadcast Hansen's speech.

A rare moment of peace.

Night is coming.

Lin Yue looked at his palm. The information from the gorilla arm was connected to the brain-computer interface. To his surprise, the panel had the function of reading the quality of the prosthetic body!
As Lin Yue now understands it, the panel should be the power framework of the game in his previous life. This world does not have the same crude fixed quality type as in the game, but the panel will provide Lin Yue with quantitative references, which will undoubtedly help Lin Yue to have a clear understanding of things.

[Gorilla Arm: An Epic]...

Purple?
Lin Yue's heart sank. He finally understood why the prosthetic doctor had been looking at him like that.

For ordinary mercenaries, a prosthetic body up to blue level is sufficient...

The doctor brought over several vials of medication. "Outside, this is called an inhibitor, but in Dogtown, it's called a blocking agent—it's all the same. Use it every day. If there are no problems after using it and your mind is still clear, you can stop taking it. If it doesn't work, you can come back to buy more medication if you want to continue using it."

"Or take it apart."

Lin Yue asked, "Was this taken from one of the company's soldiers?"

Kostin seemed surprised by the intelligence of the man before him. “Yes, Dogtown soldier—former military technology engineer, corporal. The gorilla arm on your arm is from over there, a factory product.” “Don’t worry, the blood has been washed clean, and I’ve even removed the veins.”

Feeling a bit dizzy after surgery, Lin Yue took the opportunity to review his future goals during his rest period.

Regarding the prices of goods in this world, he could only describe it with two words: collapse.

Before his reincarnation, Lin Yue controlled his game character, and most of the commissions he made were for a few thousand euros. The price of an immortal prosthetic body was only tens of thousands, and it was available everywhere, so he could afford it.

The reality is that there are very few legitimate channels for military prosthetic bodies.

Lin Yue and his team were paid well in Dog Town. Although the three jobs were dangerous, they earned an average of around ten thousand, which was enough to cover the cost of the modifications.

It was mainly because of the money he made through Rin's identity that he was able to get his arm replaced.

Ordinary mercenaries would have to save up for a long time if they wanted to use a good blue offensive prosthetic body, since one piece costs seven or eight thousand.

Their pay is only one to two thousand per job, or even a few hundred.

In other words, it's already quite good if a mercenary has two or three blue offensive cybernetic implants.

Only corporate agents, high-ranking mercenaries, and gang leaders can afford many purple cybernetic bodies.

This is why the cost of repairing and replacing just one arm and the miscellaneous repairs reached 60,000 euros, while the actual repair cost was only a little over 10,000 euros.

There are more prosthetic arms available in Dogtown, so they're cheaper. In Night City, a single arm like that would probably cost around $50,000!

"Want to try it?"

Kostin pointed to the flood control sandbags in the distance, "Could you help me carry a couple of bags and get a feel for their strength?"

Lin Yue stood up, and with a gentle grab, the bag of wet mud and sand, weighing over two hundred kilograms, was lifted up by him like a supermarket shopping bag.

"The program is set to use nanomus to gradually store energy. You can try it out in a rotten container outside—goodbye."

Lin Yue carried the sand and walked out of the clinic like a simpleton.

Costin watched Lin Yue leave, his expression a mixture of expectation and helplessness. He smiled and then turned back to sit down in front of the computer.

After coming out, Lin Yue threw the sandbag aside. Rebecca, who was in the distance, saw Lin Yue come out and waved happily.

Lin Yue glanced at the container beside him, signaling them to wait, and then punched the container.

The arm makes a clicking sound as it operates, and it seems to inject a thrill of excitement into your heart. The entire side of the container dents rapidly, producing a series of crisp sounds.

Lin Yue also threw out three punches with his other hand!

The final punch landed like a cannonball directly on the dent, and the sheet metal exploded as if it had been hit by an armor-piercing bullet, leaving a dark hole.

Lin Yue incredulously withdrew his arm from the cave, while the Mann team in the distance exchanged bewildered glances.

"Pira, what kind of prosthetic body is that?" Mann had a feeling that he might not be able to beat Lin Yue in a face-to-face fight.

That punch, no matter how well you train your strength, cannot be caused by human power.

Pi stretched his neck, seemingly scanning with a prosthetic eye.

"This kid is asking for it. He probably attached a gorilla arm that engineers use to his arm. Damn, he's got guts!"

As Lin Yue slowly approached, Mann scanned his expression but couldn't detect any discomfort.

"Are you okay?"

Lin Yue nodded, clenched his fist, patted his biceps, and gave an innocent smile.

Lin Yue's prosthetic eye lit up with the transfer information that Mann had sent him.

[Transfer]: 2000 euros.

“Take it easy, prosthetics are expensive—you need to think about saving some money for future plans. We won’t be so lucky as to have work available when we’re short of money.”

"But... it seems I've been outdone by you, kid. I need to get my hands on some serious stuff!"

Lin Yue was somewhat taken aback, then smiled.

This dark-skinned, burly man was probably worried that Lin Yue, this young lad, wouldn't know how much money to spend, so he thoughtfully gave him some living expenses.

Lin Yue wanted to say, "Actually, I'm not poor."

But that's just how Mann is. He's like an older brother, able to pay attention to the feelings of everyone on the team... especially the newcomers.

"So... you're preoccupied?" Rebecca asked tentatively.

Just as Lin Yue was about to refuse, Rebecca muttered, "Come on, come on, I'll pay for your drinks!"

Finally, everyone squeezed onto the dilapidated graffiti van, which sped along Dogtown's cracked, overgrown roads toward the town's most bustling club.

……

Thank you to the white crow in the Black Forest for the 1000 coins!
　Everyone, let me tell you about the prices here.

　　In the game, an Immortal cybernetic body might only cost ten or twenty thousand euros, and even an Immortal eye only costs 9000 euros. This raises a question:
　　When the money was settled in several thousand, everyone thought, "My God, this is too poor."

　　If the reward is 10,000 or 20,000, you can get top-tier gear by earning it ten times based on game prices. So I pushed up the price of cybernetic bodies, especially attack-type and time-stop-type cybernetic bodies, a little bit.

　　Of course, I won't push it too far. I've kept a bottom line: cybernetic psychosis will make even wealthy people hesitant to get prosthetic bodies, just look at the hesitation of Mrs. Emma and the protagonist.

　　Secondly, there's the issue of cybernetic access. I've set a threshold for obtaining military cybernetic bodies. It's not like the protagonist can just walk into any cybernetic clinic and pull out a Sianwistan-Apogee—that would blow up Night City. But I'm definitely not playing the scarcity marketing game; you have to genuinely acquire them through your own abilities.

　　Finally, I'd like to ask you to continue reading this series. My readers all love this genre, so you can all keep reading, but please do read it once in a while so I can keep going. Thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)